Spectrum management often relies on wireless operations in certain areas (authorized areas) to be on specific channels, to avoid interference with other networks. In addition, the spectrum available in a specific area can often change, and/or devices may move while enduring intermittent wireless connectivity. These considerations make spectrum management and radio operation a challenge in a number of operational situations.
The restriction of channel usage to defined geographic boundaries is sometimes referred to in the art as “geo-fencing”. For example, in a typical geo-fencing system wireless communication in a first geographic area may be restricted to a first channel “A”, and wireless communication in a second geographic area may be restricted to a second channel “B”. The geographic areas may be defined by any conventional means, such as, for example, by geographic unit (e.g., county, zip code, etc), geographic coordinates, FCC defined usage areas, and others.
Often, wireless communication is performed by a mobile radio device, which can move in and out of various geo-fencing areas. Thus, considering the above example, when the mobile radio device is in the first geographic area the mobile radio device communicates via channel A, and when the mobile radio device is in the second geographic area the mobile radio device communicates via channel B. As the mobile device moves between the different geographic areas, there must be a seamless handover of channel usage (for example from channel A to channel B and vices versa) as the mobile radio device moves between the geographic areas. Furthermore, the travel range of the mobile radio device may encompass numerous geographic channel areas (more than two as in the above example), and there may be more than one available channel for use within each channel operating area, which further complicates the need for a seamless handover of channel usage.
Channel operating areas also may overlap, which means, referring to the above example, there may be overlapping areas in which both channels A and B are available. Without a seamless mechanism for channel handover, the result can be “thrashing” in these overlapping areas, by which the mobile radio device is constantly switching between the two available channels.
Current systems for spectrum management, however, have proven deficient with regard to seamless channel handover within a geo-fencing system as a mobile radio device moves among geographic areas associated with different channel usage.